alt Hacker NewsI think this misses the author's point. The examples he gave were all related to programming as an act of learning rather than an act of completion. He made no comment wrt programming as a contributor within a larger system (like open source code, community games, etc.). Instead, he argues that it's ok to like programming because it satisfies an intrinsic motivation, not that it satisfies an extrinsic goal more effectively.
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I'm not entirely sure I agree.
While doing the whole project, I learned a lot about reverse engineering itself, the tooling, understanding static vs dynamic analysis, etc. Which was the most fun part of the project itself.
The rate at what people are delivering projects removes that opportunity heavily, even in hobby communities, which is part of the point!
I've always enjoyed the process rather than the end-product, which is why this personally affects me more than other folks I guess. Some people are motivated on producing more, I was more motivated by the learning process behind it, and those two things aren't compatible, so speed is winning the race, sadly, even if you're not profit motivated. I admit I'm a bit more of a doomer, I still use AI tools at work, but I guess it was time to search for hobbies that are not related to programming anymore.
Not everyone can enjoy the process when a comparable outcome already exists. I'm aware the act of learning alone may be fulfilling enough for some, but many (including myself) got into programming to make things. When those things already exist, there's no point to making them anymore. I don't find it fun to make things for nobody.
I take the parent comment's meaning to be that disentangling the journey from the destination isn't so easy in practice, especially if you're robbed of the community that was journeying alongside you.
If you were running a marathon and, halfway through, everybody just hopped in a cab and drove to the finish line, you'd be disappointed.